Oracle responds to Java security flaws with 50 fixes Oracle has been under increasing pressure in recent months to finally fix the myriad of security flaws that have plagued Java. In an unexpected emergency out-of-band patch released Friday afternoon, Oracle has responded definitively to critics with a massive security patch fixing at least 50 different issues. The February 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE was originally scheduled for February 19th, but given that at least one of the vulnerabilities is being actively exploited… eSecurity Planet

How Lytro is shifting our perspective on photography The first time I got to play with a Lytro light-field camera was in March, 2012. If I had to sum up my reaction in eight words, it would be: “Concept: Mind-blowing. Execution: Not quite there yet.” It was clear that the technology inside the camera — which makes it possible to refocus a picture after it’s been taken — would eventually upset all of our notions about photos and photography. But the device itself reminded me of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home video game console. Xconomy

As music streaming grows, royalties slow to a trickle Like plenty of music fans, Sam Broe jumped at the chance to join Spotify two summers ago, and he hasn’t looked back. Spotify, which began streaming music in Sweden in 2008, lets users choose from millions of songs over the Internet free or by subscription, and is increasingly seen as representing the future of music consumption. Mr. Broe, a 26-year-old from Brooklyn, said that having all that music at his fingertips helped him trim his monthly music budget… The NY Times

Gabe Newell on removing Valve from Steam The news-owls at VG247 spotted that there’s a video (below) of Gabe Newell’s recent talk at the University of Texas. In it he covers a wide range of issues relating to games, and particularly to Steam – discussing things such as the market for Team Fortress 2 hats. But what is perhaps most remarkable is that around 44 minutes, he talks about the problem of Steam being a curated store, and goes on to suggest that Valve are a bottleneck for publishing on the platform… Rock Paper Shotgun

And the award for the next HBO goes to… The quirky little start-up that once printed money by mailing you DVDs is hell-bent on morphing into the HBO — and the network, and the any-show, any-time streaming service — of tomorrow. Can Netflix and its pathologically modest founder, Reed Hastings, pull it off? Who knows? But it’s going to be fun to watch, starting this month with David Fincher’s $ 100 million House of Cards. The only guaranteed winner in the bloody battle for the on-demand future? You. On your couch. GQ

30 years since Lotus 1-2-3 Over the weekend, I started seeing a variety of tweets and Google Alerts about an important milestone: January 26, 2013 is the 30th anniversary of the release of Lotus 1-2-3. The head of the project, Mitch Kapor, was interviewed by The Register. There is much to learn from 1-2-3. Many newcomers to the world of using personal computers in business, unfortunately, don’t know much about it. While VisiCalc gets to be in the history books for being the first of its genre… Dan Bricklin

Sycamore Networks: from $ 45 billion to zilch There was a time when Sycamore Networks Inc. SCMR -3.48% was the next big thing — a leader in the race to direct digital traffic across the Internet. This is not that time. On Friday, Sycamore all but went out of business. The Chelmsford, Mass., company said it had completed the sale of its remaining product line and that its shareholders had voted to dissolve the company. Sycamore ended the day with a market value of about $ 66 million… The WSJ

Prey 2 countdown site appears, will unlock in 27 days — rumor A countdown site going by the name of “Alien Noire” has popped up online, and NeoGAF users have dissected the source code, which seems to point towards a Prey 2 reveal in 27 days. According to information gleaned from the GAF post, the source code contains the tags: Prey, Prey2, Prey 2, FPS, Bethesda Softworks, Human Head Studios, Alien Noire — all traces of which have since been edited out of the source code. VG247

Twitter got hacked. Expect more companies to follow. The last week of tech headlines reads like some sort of cybersecurity end of days scenario. The New York Times hacked. The Wall Street Journal hacked. The Washington Post hacked. And finally on Friday, Twitter — one of the world’s largest Internet communication services — also hacked. “Who’s next?” you may be thinking. But the question to ask isn’t “Who’s next?” The question is, “Who will admit it next?” AllThingsD

Submarine cable map details the secret world of the underwater internet Even though we’re living in 2013 and can stream entire seasons of TV shows in between banking and sending work emails on our phone alone, sending data around the world is not exactly an easy feat. The internet exists how it does today thanks to the help of cables sunk deep into the world’s oceans. A new, gorgeous map details the world’s submarine cables as they appear in 2013… ExtremeTech

Massive 2,800+ player battle in Eve Online took place today. Here’s what that looks like… Essentially, there are two “Mega” coalitions in the game right now, the Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) and the Honeybadger Coalition (HBC). A coalition is a group of alliances that band together. There are also 3-4 other smaller coalitions (Russian Bloc, N3), as well as some independent notable alliances (Black Legion in this case). These are all Nullsec powers. Reddit

Venture capital’s massive, terrible idea for the future of college Can you go to college on your computer? Some say yes, and others respond with a resounding no. But one thing is for sure: there is a boatload of public money to be vacuumed off an overcrowded, underfunded educational establishment desperate for at least the appearance of a quick fix. Enter Udacity, the foremost provider of Massively Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. The Awl

Wolfram Alpha does its best to analyze the Super Bowl Can an analytics engine predict the Super Bowl? Wolfram Alpha isn’t making any guarantees, but the self-billed “computational knowledge engine” is willing to crunch the numbers and throw out a few data points about this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVII, in which the Baltimore Ravens will face off against the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans. Slashdot

Three months with Microsoft’s Office 365 Windows and Office. It’s a duo that has made up the core of Microsoft’s business since before I was born, and remains the cornerstone upon which the rest of the company is built. And so it has gone, for as long as I can remember: with each new version of Windows, a refreshed edition of Office to go along with it. This year, we’ve got Office 2013. AnandTech